- Lead the dog on waterside paths in spring. Nests are on the ground.
- Skip the bread. Peas or oats if the site allows feeding; nothing if it does not.
- Take fishing line and plastic home. Line wraps legs and bills.
- Do not chase birds for a photo. If they run, you already lost.
- Stay off islands and fenced rafts. Those are nurseries.
- Leave the drone in the bag. From below it reads as a falcon.
- Stay on the path. Banks collapse. Nests hide.
Urban waters count. St James’s Park and Walthamstow Wetlands are not lesser nature. There are simply more people per metre, so manners have to scale.
If a bird is injured, a wildlife hospital, not a picnic blanket. Illegal nest destruction is a police matter. A sandwich on the path is a neighbour problem: “peas are better, bread wrecks their wings” and keep walking is enough.
January is roosts and ice. March to July is nests. August is flightless, scruffy drakes. October is the first big arrivals. Behave as if that calendar is on the sign, even when nobody printed it.
A year of manners, drawn as a calendar
The sign nobody printed
A dog lead in April is worth more than an apology in May. Binoculars from a path beat a chase for a photo.
Bring a bag for the line. Stay on the bank. If you came for a present that belongs here, it is a lead, optics, and the habit of leaving. Membership of a trust still beats a slogan mug.